I have been going thru various parts I once wrote in the Japanese version message archive just to see what translations I got 'right' and what I may have screwed up. I thought it might be good to have a place to discuss the comparisons.

Story related -

The name Clare in the japanese version is Cleo in the US. I found it interesting that she stopped herself from saying her name as Cleopatra. This could indicate that my ascribing the name Cleopatra to the japanese meanie may have just been him talking to your assistant (since he seems to be chasing after her). I may have misread the japanese O as an A (KuReA which I called Clare but perhaps should have been KuReO for Cleo)

Also I find it funny that the first rival (Errick) turns out to be a kid with a crush on Cleo and not an enemy.

Game mechanics -

I noticed in the Manual that there was a picture of the text input. The Japanese version had 6 characters max. The English appears to have 10. (manual page 7) Presumably this would be necessary to account for the more robust Kana (where each character is 2 letters in Engish) and give enough room for good words to be used in English.

Other observations or questions are certainly welcome.

About the text input:
The process of making a monster through text input
is called Magic spell (lowercase s)

If the Japanese version had 6 characters max, then
the English version has 10 max. You start off with
5. I only unlocked Beaclon and Dragon, but I
didn't have the old guy visiting about increased
input boxes until I got Dragon.

That said, with Dragon unlocked... I now have 7
out of the 10 boxes usable.

Also possible translation error: When the old guy
visited, he mentioned you originally had 3 input
boxes but now you can have up to 4. Shouldn't it
be 5 to 7?

I unlocked the Magic spell method when I was in D-Rank. That's much earlier than the Japanese version, right?

Also, yes, Cleopatra is the assistant. She is the daughter of the 'big meanie', the former president of BOMBA. All I know so far is that she is running away from home, the big guy wants her back, and she changed her name to Cleo because she doesn't like Cleopatra. She doesn't want a 'noble' name, she wants a 'cute' name.

One noticeable difference is that writing certain singular Kanji in the Magic spell field crashes the game, most notably the Zodiac kanji. So there are probably new Zodiac codes, don't know what they are though.

I have detailed how you get the input boxes in the japanese sections. The monsters come in unlockable tiers. Once you finish a tier, you get another input box. The first additional box is granted when you get a Dragon. I'll spell it out on another post.

D rank for text input? I am Rank A and have no text input. You have to get permission for Text input, but I never translated what the guide said about what that condition is. If you have Text input at Rank D, you really need to spill the beans on how you got it.

What the heck..

First additional text box - Unlock 1 of the following unlockable monsters: Dragon, Phoenix, Joker, Centaur, or Naga

Second addition - Unlock Xenon OR Gali

Third text addition - Unlock Xenon AND Gali

(Straight from the guide)

i unlocked the Magic Spell and got my first
additional box on the same day, right after beating
the Dragon. Anyone have any idea what the
conditions for unlocking the Magic Spell are?

I can also reconfirm the typo in the box upgrade,
saying originally you had 3 three and now you have
4, when in fact its actually 6 to 7.

That is precisely how I did it in the japanese game. It gave me permission because I already got the expansion. The reason I did not translate the permission condition is because I got it that way. But you cant get dragon until at least class A. (there are 2 tourneys that get you a Dragon scale, one in class A and one in Class S)

In this version Dragon Scale tourney is in B class.

I unlocked the Magic spell/text input right after I unlocked Beaklon, which I did in D Rank since I read the Monster Farm 2 section and knew how to unlock it and really wanted one.

Sounds like the condition could be that you have to unlock ANY locked monster to get the text input.

And the Japanese is also class B to unlock Dragon. I mistyped it.

Isn't it the Dragon FANG you need to get to unlock dragons? The scale is one of the 'roid items. *looks it up * yep, Rank B, Rising Dragon, 2 monsters, Dragon Fang as prize. Dolora is the equal of a Rank A monster though. :/

Now that I think again, it was soon after the first time I beat dolora that I got it unlocked.